This game was an utter disaster - yet I very nearly came on top. I was obviously a better player than this fellow, but lost as a result of a few match-turning incidents.

Things went badly when I decided that the map was Isle of War - so my stretch from the bottom left went in the wrong direction. I lost both my dogs to my opponents, as well as an engineer. I hid the other one, hoping he wouldn't be noticed. My opponent ended up taking both derricks.

I quickly managed to stretch back across to the gems, going for straight tanks despite my lack of oil. My opponent attacked with a few drones at this point, managing to get lucky despite a few deployed GIs that should have stopped them. He also managed to walk a conscript right into the hut by the gems before I could put my GI in there! Fortunately he only attacked my miners, allowing my tanks to sort the problem out quickly. I was managing to build straight tanks with no problems, and had put down a few refineries by now. My AFC wouldn't be too far away, or would it?

I noticed a flak trak behind my MCV at this point, with an engineer and drone just stood there. I panicked. I thought about deploying my MCV, but then realised that selling it was the best option. He managed to capture it just before I sold it. He built a few sentry guns, which I managed to destroy with my tanks. I tried to recapture it with an engineer out of the barracks, but he sold it. I was now in a right quandry - with no refinery by the ore patch or an AFC.

Straight tanks were the only option, plus a few repair IFVs on occasion. I built a lot of dogs as well, then charged him head on when he came with his rhinos and dogs. He panicked, I gave chase. I managed to destory pretty much all his tanks with several of my own remaining - but he started pumping out desolators at this point. Not ideal given the health of my tanks, as I'm sure you can imagine.

I hastily constructed a nighthawk transport - my only form of air unit available. My tanks managed to take out a few of his derricks, though I didn't risk attacking the ones on the islands in case the desolators trapped me. I managed to kill a few of them with the nighthawk, before moving it out of the way of a flak.

He tried attacking several times, but I kept beating him back and repairing my tanks. When I received an Elite Grizzly, my desolator problems were over. I kept repelling the attacks then repairing my units. He tried more drones at this point, but I put my tanks in a circle around my repair IFV - which quickly solved the problem if the drones were successful.

Unfortunately, I lost my only remaining chrono miner at this point (to the said drones). I had used my others as fodder earlier, so I was in somewhat of a predicament. A few more drones managed to actually get in my engineer IFV, so his drones were now a threat. I lost my elite tank, and with that all chances of the game. I tried an attack, but was beat off eventually.

Disappointing defeat - even if I had just my AFC up before I lost my MCV then I'm confident I would have won. Why my opponent didn't just go naval is beyond me. I would have had no reproach.